Vulture Infestation in Iparralde

No, I am not talking about the French occupation of the northern portion of Euskal Herria, this note is about a EU regulation gone wrong.

It was published at The Telegraph, here you have it:

How EU turned vultures into birds of prey

By Henry Samuel in Paris
Last Updated: 12:01am BST 16/06/2008

Farmers in the French Pyrenees are blaming the European Union for a rise in the number of vulture attacks on their livestock.

EU ruling introduced in 2006 stipulates that carcasses must be incinerated, which deprives the scavengers of their usual food.

Before the rule was enforced, the birds were able to gorge on an estimated 150,000 tons of rotting pig flesh that was left out by Spanish farmers every year.

But since the restrictions came in, French farmers claim, the birds are crossing into the French Pyrenees – and in one case flying as far as Belgium.

"It's becoming crazy," said Vincent Moustirats, 31, a farmer in Beguios, in the French Basque region. "Every week there is an attack. They killed one of my cows as it was giving birth on Saturday, and that same day they ate two calves in the nearby village of Sare."

In Saint-Michel, near the Spanish border, Pascal Guecaimburu said he fought to save four young heifers.

"I was milking. The vultures came in low then swooped down on their backs. The heifers ran but were cornered by the gate. Twenty or so birds surrounded them and moved in. I got my gun and fired in the air."

The birds flew off, but Mr Guecaimburu had to rescue the heifers again before nightfall.

"These were four healthy cows," he added.

Ornithologists insist such accounts are exaggerated and that vultures feed only on dead or dying animals.

But farmers reported 87 vulture attacks last year, four times more than in previous years.

Jean Lassalle, deputy of the département of the Pyrénées-Atlantiques, backed the farmers. He said: "Vultures used to be our friends as they dealt with dead animals, but have now become predators. The state won't acknowledge this and is treating farmers as imbeciles."

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